DUBAI, 28 January 2008 -- Saudi-based industrial contracting and oil refining company Nasser S. Al Hajri Corporation is to recruit around 20,000 workers and professionals in the next six months, the company's managing director Ravi Pillai told Arab News.

"The company will recruit 45 different categories of workers who will be mostly based in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Over the past two years, my employees have been remitting to India an average of $17.8 million every month. This will increase with our new recruitment drive," Pillai said.

"We have recently signed several multimillion dollar contracts with various international clients, that will enable me to recruit 20,000 more people from India, as our operations in the Gulf are being expanded," said Pillai.

'We are planning to enter the hospitality sector in India in a major way with operations from Delhi to Chennai," he said. Pillai, who is also chairman and managing director of Dubai-based Versailles Hotel and Air Choice Travel; and some other companies, said that his investment in India's hospitality sector has already started with the launch of a hotel project in Kerala.

"We are starting a AED. 110-million hotel project at Kollam next year. We are also planning a AED 98 million medical resort in Kollam to boost the medical tourism sector in India," he said.

Pillai is one of the winners of this year's Pravasi Bharatiya Samman. The entrepreneur, whose business groups in Saudi Arabia and Qatar employ 35,000 people, was given the award by Indian President Pratibha Patil in New Delhi on Jan. 9.

He has set up a charity trust and set apart AED 10 million for starting an orphanage in Kerala. "Initially, the center will accommodate 100 orphans from different parts of India and they will be given care and education until they grow up and get a job."

Pillai would set apart 20 to 30 percent of his earnings toward similar charity projects in different parts of India.

While asked about his beginnings in the Gulf, he said: After my post graduation   in business management from Cochin in Kerala, I was involved with some contracting works with Cochin Refineries in Kerala. Gradually I found that it was not very profitable and I shifted to Alkhobar in Saudi Arabia.

"I launched my operations in the Gulf in 1978. Saudi-based Nasser Al-Hajri Corporation (NSH), of which I am the managing director and other divisions of the group in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE employ a total of 35000, people in the industrial contracting and oil refining sector," said Pillai who is currently a resident of Bahrain.

"When I first entered into highly industrial contracting jobs in Saudi Arabia. Engineering and Procurement companies from America and Europe were hesitant to award contracts to my company. They gave  the excuse that Indians are not capable of working the specialized oil and petrochemical and refining sectors. However, years passed by, we have been able to establish sour reputation internationally. At present ours is a leading business group in the Gulf with current turnover of $2.5 billion," he concluded.

© Arab News 2008